Delhi in Disarray

Delhi is in red alert due to the bomb blasts that took place in two cinema halls playing the controversial movie Jo Bole So Nihal A third explosion took place just hours after the first two blasts near a railway crossing. Absence of metal shrapnel and few other key factors limited the death toll to one and the injured to seventy people. The movie has reportedly been removed from theaters all over India albeit no direct link has been established between the incident and the screening of the movie.

I must confess that my initial reaction was utterly selfish and self-serving. The thought that crossed my mind was- Shoot, my parents will never let me watch Revenge of the Sith!!!! And yes I do feel terribly ashamed….

On a lighter vein while discussing the incident with my cousins, we talked about how unfortunate it was that people of the Sikh community had to resort to such measures to stop a film which itself was made by a Sikh director and had a Sikh hero as the lead. Then we hypothesized that it was not really the Sikhs, but Islamic terrorists who had instigated the blasts so as to revive the distrusts between the Hindus and Sikhs. And then somebody came up with the idea that maybe the Hindu fundamentalists had actually done the dastardly deed because they too had reasoned that the people would come to the aforementioned conclusion - that the Muslims did it…Thus creating tension between the Hindu and Muslim communities!!

Conspiracy theories aside, the blasts need to be strongly condemned and all efforts should be taken to find the culprits immediately. Delhi has been the victim of riots in 1984 with horrific consequences. Everybody suffered and the wounds are yet not entirely healed. All it requires is a scratch for it to burst forth and spill blood. Having lost an uncle in 84, who was gunned down when he stepped out to help a wounded man outside his house, I know first hand the pain and terror associated with riots. All terrorist acts in the name of religion are the most grievous of offences and needs to be nipped right at the bud. I am but an ignorant human but the one thing I do believe with all my heart is that the quality that stands above all others human virtues and cherished most by God is love.

As the great soul Swami Vivekananda said,

Love Is The Law Of Life:

All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction.

Love is therefore the only law of life.

He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying.

Therefore, love for love's sake, because it is law of life,

just as you breathe to live.